NEDDC's draft local housebuilding plan - flawed and late

North East Derbyshire District Council are currently in the process of putting in place a local plan - the document which proposes how our area will change and develop over the next 15 years.

I have strongly opposed the Council's local plan proposals since I was elected, particularly around their proposed house building approach which would see large numbers of new houses on greenbelt and greenfield around the area. The numbers of houses they want to build are highly debatable, the assumptions they use speculative and the locations they have chosen are, in my view wrong.

The Council are proposing to allow building in the following places between now and 2034:

Clay Cross: 980 new homes (825 Biwaters site, 120 land at Stretton Road, 25 land north of Clay Lane, 10 land at Broadleys)

Killamarsh: 471 new homes (330 land at Westthorpe, 70 land off Rotherham Road, 30 land off Primrose Lane, 14 land at 28 Ashley Lane, 14 The Old Station, Station Road, 13 land off Boiley Lane)

Grassmoor: 127 new homes (127 land at Windwhistle Farm)

North Wingfield: 72 new homes (22 land at Croft House, 50 land at Holborn House, Chesterfield Road)

Tupton & Old Tupton: 329 new homes (215 land at Ankerbold Road, 68 land to the rear of 10 - 52 Ashover Road, Old Tupton, 46 land south of Sunningdale Park)

Wingerworth: 1181 new homes (716 The Avenue strategic site, 250 land at Hanging Banks, 215 land south of Mill Lane)

More detail can be found in the draft local plan published on the Council's website here: go to www.ne-derbyshire.gov.uk/index.php/resident/local-plan, click on "Local Plan 2014 - 2034 (Publication Draft)" and then click on "Publication Draft Plan". Go to chapter 5 (page 65 onwards).

Consultation on the local plan the plan closed in April 2018 and the Council chose not to make any changes to it based on what local residents said. Instead, the plan was handed over to the next stage of the process (examination by an independent planning inspector). The hearings for this examination took place in November and December and I spoke at them to highlight the flaws in the Council's proposals. We are now waiting the Inspector to make a decision on whether to make any changes to the local plan which should happen at some point in early 2019. Whatever that decision is, I will continue to stand up for the communities in North East Derbyshire who have been adversely affected by the Council's failures on planning.